The goal of the Engineering Core is to provide for the development of new equipment and computer programs to take advantage of the rapid developments in theoretical and computational neuroscience. A set of computer programs will be developed that will allow experimenters to construct special purpose data acquisition functions using software tools like Matlab. The system will be designed for a standardized set of hardware, commonly available in our laboratories, and will facilitate performing new and creative experiments by reducing the instrumentation-development time and cost. Core staff will also assist users in writing software to perform sophisticated analyses of spike-train data, making the latest developments in the theory of information representation by spike trains available to investigators. Finally, the core will provide routine support for design and construction of small electronic items and installation and maintenance of computer systems and networks.